Happy Birthday, Frank Lloyd Wright!

 

Frank Wright

 

“The greatest American architect of all time” was born this day, June 8th, in 1867. Wright completed over 500 architectural works, which helped start the modernists movement in the early 20th century.

He referred to his architecture as ‘organic,’ in complete harmony with itself and its surroundings, as if it had developed as naturally as at tree but without necessarily resorting to formal initiation. This approach is clear in his famous Fallingwater House. For many, Wright is considered the quintessential vision of an architect, even though his personality was sometimes labeled as brash or arrogant. In a 1957 interview, Write stated, “I think any man who really has faith in himself will be dubbed arrogant, I suppose. I think that’s what happened to me.”

Write also stated, “The letters we receive from our clients tell us how those buildings we build for them have changed the character of their whole life and their whole existence, that it’s different now than it was before. Well, I’d like to do that for the country.” Wright was responsible for a series of concepts of suburban development united under the term Broadacre City. He proposed the idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932, and unveiled a 12-square-foot (1.1 m2) model of this community of the future, showing it in several venues in the following years. He continued developing the idea until his death in 1959.

 

Fallingwater

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